Cocaine Pentagrams and Codeine Dreams: “Wassup” 14 Years On
A$AP Rocky has never skimmed on visuals. When Wassup landed in 2012, it didn’t just extend the lo-fi, grainy aesthetic introduced in Purple Swag, it crystallised an era. Tumblr-ready and purple-soaked, the video translated Clams Casino’s codeine-dreamy production into slow-motion psychedelia, Harlem street mythology and fashion that would define Pretty Flacko’s mainstream breakout following the critical success of Live. Love. A$AP.
To bring the vision to life, Rocky teamed up with VICE, co-directing alongside then Global Editor Andy Capper. Capper recalls first encountering Rocky through Peso: “Somebody sent me the Peso video and I got obsessed with it… I was in love with this kid without meeting him.” A meeting quickly followed, and the collaboration came together organically. “It was 100 per cent fun and easy… I just made his vision come to life and added a thing or two.”
Rocky arrived with a cinematic blueprint drawn from five films: Scarface, Belly, Enter the Dragon, The Warriors and Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory. On a “barebones budget,” Capper distilled each reference into iconography: “Scarface was the bathtub of dollars, The Warriors was the morning shots by the bridge, Enter the Dragon was the mirrors.” Even Willy Wonka found its way in, arguably through excess itself.
One of the video’s most infamous images - the cocaine pentagram - emerged almost accidentally. Influenced by Peter Beste’s True Norwegian Black Metal book lying around the VICE office, Capper remembers: “There was a lot of cocaine flying around Brooklyn at that time.” The symbol sparked endless comment-section conspiracy, but as Capper notes dryly, “I just know that the pentagram had people talking about how Rocky was in the Illuminati.”
Looking back, Capper says Rocky’s trajectory was obvious. “Rocky’s star quality cannot be underestimated. He had immeasurable aura.” 14 years on, Wassup remains a time capsule, before the myth calcified, when chaos, creativity and belief collided. RIP Yams. Long live A$AP.
